When the question of what will define 2016 comes up, the response most often includes words and sentiments like “Brexit” and “Brexiteers”- “Trump” and “populism”- “alt-right” and “progressive v reactionary”, “open v closed”, “liberalism v fascism”, “rational v irrational”- “division” and “anger”- “fear” and “frustraion”- “mistrust” and “foreigners, immigrants, asylum-seekers”- “xenophobia, racism, intolerance” and “Islam, Muslims, Mexicans, Latinos”- “securing our borders, making our countries great again”- “article 50” and “judges the enemies of people”…: All summarised in"Post-truth", named word of the year byOxfordDictionaries, as an adjective "relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief".

There are many reasons/scenarios, indeed, as many as words themselves out there, to explain why 2016 came to be defined by such negative sentiments as the ones noted above.